The Coupe of Spades Butterfly
by Pinole
Summary: Gaze into an alternate timeline of STVFOE with me, and examine what happens when Eclipsa's younger brother takes it upon himself to free her and return her to power.
1. Chapter 1

Four people sit around a table in the backroom of a shady inn in Mewni's capital. Two monsters, a Lizard and a Frog, as well as two Mewmans discuss what they will be doing tonight. The Mewman at the far end of the table, a short man with orange hair and spade markings on his cheeks, stands up and begins to speak.

"Gentlemen, if all goes well tonight, that fool Shastacan will be dethroned, Queen Eclipsa will return to power, and with any luck we will bring about a lasting peace between Mewmans and monsters." The man raises his drink, his cheeks glowing. "However if we fail it is more than likely we will be brutally tortured and killed, and nothing will change. This is the last chance for any of you to back out." No one speaks or stands up. "Alright then, a toast to either peace, or high treason."

_Record Scratch _"Yeah that's me. Your probably wondering who I am, and how I got involved with a lizard, a frog-man, and their plans for high treason. Well, this was my plan, actually. Let's zoom back a few years…"

The scene changes to the Mewman royal palace. It appears to be early morning and Queen Solaria is walking through the courtyard with a nine year-old Eclipsa with a picnic basket. "That is Queen Solaria Butterfly and her daughter Eclipsa, the rightful queen of Mewni." Suddenly a short, squat, orange-haired six-year old ran up. "And that would be me, Spades Butterfly." The boy trips and slides on his face before getting back up and reaching Solaria. "I'm Eclipsa's brother."

"In all honesty, my sister and I never really got along." It changes to series of still images of the two growing up together. The first is an image of them on the same day at the picnic, Solaria's back is turned and she appears to looking over a map of a battlefield. The siblings are both throwing food at each other while their mother is distracted. "We competed in almost everything, just to prove we were better than each other." A still of the two playing a monopoly-esque board game together, Eclipsa is clearly winning and Spades looks ready to murder her.

"My sister started learning about magic when she was 13, supposedly to learn how to use her wand better, but I think she just was over-eager." It cuts to the two sitting in a library, Eclipsa is studying the spellbook. Spades is sitting in the back corner, around ten. "My interests were…focused elsewhere." Lightning flashes and we see Spades is reading a book titled _How to stage a coup._

"Don't get me wrong, I love my sister and I always have, but I didn't think she could be a queen. I thought that she would mess up. She never seemed too…qualified. I realize now that's because I was comparing her to our mother. Really, I guess that just meant she wouldn't be a great general, but whatever. Past is past, I can't change what I did." It cuts to a ceremony of sorts, Solaria is about to hand Eclipsa the wand, (Eclipsa is now 14). Spades is standing next to them. "Quick heads up, I'm about to do a dumb thing." The scene changes to Solaria handing the wand to Eclipsa…but Spade snatches it before Eclipsa can. Spades is now aiming the wand threateningly at his mother. "Here's the dumb thing. I stole the wand, aimed it at my mother… and threatened to use it on her unless she promised that I would be king rather than Eclipsa being queen. My mother was silent…and then, she started to laugh, everyone else then joined in. I tried to tell her I was serious, but then Eclipsa, my dear sister Eclipsa, pointed out the surprisingly obvious flaw in my plan…I didn't know any spells. She then snatched the wand from me."

"My mother, publicly, told everyone that this was an elaborate joke. Privately, she chewed me out for several hours, telling me I had technically just committed treason, then she sent me to my room, and…" It cuts to a still of an un-amused looking Spades sitting at a table with a covered silver platter on it. "*sigh*, she had the cooks prepare my favorite meal to try and cheer me up. She…seemed to have a problem taking me seriously. In retrospect, I was eleven year-old whom attempted to commit a coup with no real plan, it's not surprising she didn't."

"The magic counsel convinced my mother that I needed to be punished so she 'banished' me to one of our summer homes. She and Eclipsa visited often and Eclipsa and I would send letters to each other from then on. Strangely, I grew to like my sister more from a distance. I even grew to miss her. Unfortunately I…I didn't see much of her after our mother died."


	2. Chapter 2

The scene is now very clearly a funeral. The entirety of Solaria's court and Eclipsa are standing around a coffin. "They…They didn't let me come to mother's funeral." The scene zooms to an older looking Spades sitting in a study with his head in his hands. "Technically I was…still banished. I wasn't allowed to leave the grounds of the summer home…It felt mean-spirited of the counsel, but I guess since my mother had still banished me before she died they didn't have a choice."

The next scene is Eclipsa's coronation. Spades is sitting in a balcony watching. "Thankfully the first thing that Eclipsa chose to do as acting queen was lift my banishment. I was allowed to leave the summer home now. I attended her coronation…and her wedding." It switches to a scene of Eclipsa and Shastacan. Eclipsa is in a wedding dress. "She looked lovely…But I hated the man she was marrying. " A moustache and eye-patch is scribbled onto Shastacan. "I talked to the guy five minutes and I could tell that his personality was that terrible combination of stupidity and arrogance that one in power should never take up. There is no doubt that mother selected him to marry her solely due to some political alliance the royal family needed."

The Scene changes again, this time to Spades placing a suitcase atop a carriage. "He was the reason I chose to move back to the summer home rather than live in the Palace. I missed my sister dearly, but I could not live under the same roof of that…that pig in a powdered wig." The scene changes again, back to an image of the summer home. This time is the early evening and several Mewmans are lined up at the door. "I started holding card tournaments around this time. It was a distraction from the loneliness more than anything else. At first the elite of all Mewman society would show up to play with 'Solaria's Black Sheep', thinking hanging around Eclipsa 'kid brother' (those were both things that they _actually_ called me) would earn them favors from the queen. They stopped coming when they found out I was accepting Monsters as players"

The scene is now a group of disgusted looking nobles walking away as Spades is playing cards with a trio of monsters, one of whom is clearly wearing a crown. "That's where I first met one of my allies in this endeavor in fact." The Scene changes to a Lizard-Monster sitting across from. "That's Nougat, former general of the Monster Army during Solaria's wars. Nice guy, terrible at bluffing though. Also, I think he was technically sent to kill me, but he didn't, so.*shrugs*."

The scene changes again. Eclipsa is wearing a cloak and sneaking into the back door of the summer home. Globgor is seen outlined in the window. "Nougat's also how I found out about my Sister's actual lover. Believe it or not, I was the only one in the family 'befriending' monsters." Globgor and Eclipsa are in the midst of a romantic reunion in the living room. We see Nougat and Spades through an open door, playing cards in the next room. "I found out about Eclipsa's affair through Globgor and I's mutual friend here..." An arrow appears over Nougat. "I wish she would have let me find out sooner. I had a guest house on my home's grounds which they made use of…"

It changes to a scene of the guest house."T-they met up there, get your minds out the gutter…than again that is where my niece was borrr… oh, oh my god they…uh, moving on." It changes to a scene of Eclipsa holding the baby Meteora. "I think I had a worse panic attack over being an uncle than Globgor did when he realized he was now a father."

"Anyway, later that day they made a run for it, hoping to get far away from Shastacan…and later that day I got a message from Shastacan about Globgor having attacked and eaten Eclipsa. I guess he was unaware I knew of the affair/ knew he was full of it. He, still unaware I knew of the affair, sent me a small painting of "his daughter." It was a nice looking girl, but it was NOT my niece. This is when I found out this walking trash bag had literally thrown out a baby and also when I decided to absolutely ruin his life."

It cuts to a still of an infuriated Spades tearing apart the letter at a cards table, a concerned looking Nougat watching. "I mean, when you think about Shastacan had committed treason by swapping out the royal heir for an imposter. I knew that, but no one else did, it was my duty as a citizen of Mewni, nay, as a decent Mewman being in general, to do something about that!"


	3. Bonus Chapter, Spades' Tapestry poems

**Just thought I'd give you guys these quick.**

"**Spades Tapestry Poem, Canon Time line"**

_A boy who took his games too far,_

_Left alone without a friend_

_Thus goes the story of Spades,_

_The king who might have been_

In the canon timeline Spade's tapestry is of him as a child, aiming the wand threateningly at his mother.

"**Spades Tapestry Poem, Story Timeline"**

_Eclipsa's final ally,_

_Her brother through and through_

_Saw a great injustice,_

_And solved it with a coup_

Story timeline tapestry image is a huge spoiler…


	4. Chapter 4

**Sorry for shifting views all of a sudden but I honestly think I can finish this better in 3****rd**** person than I ever could in first.**

Spades paces in the living room while Nougat reads a newspaper, seemingly unconcerned.

"I need a plan!" Spades waves his hands in the air in frustration as he paces. "I need a way to free Eclipsa from wherever Shastacan is keeping her! I need a way to get his fat butt off of her throne! Preferably a way that leaves him publically disgraced! Or better yet, Dead!"

"I don't really see what the big deal is." Nougat turns the page and continues reading. "Just challenge his rule. You have closer ties to the royal family to him, you should be able to take the throne and then make the council tell you where Eclipsa is."

"Oh, if it only it was that simple my reptilian friend." Spades walks past Nougat and into the next room. "You see, there are in fact two problems with that course of action."

Nougat turns the pages again. "They would be? By the way…" The lizard gestures to an article on a Warnicorn derby from the previous night. "Crybaby blues won, like I said. Pay up."

"Darn. Really thought I had it right that time. Money's on the table." We hear Spades rifling through something. "As I was saying, there are 2 problems. One is simple to avoid, the other is more difficult. The simple one is that the public believes Festivia to be my niece. While we know this isn't true, they don't, and thus since Mewni is a matriarchal society, the baby has a better claim to throne then me as of right now. We could solve that by arguing that Shastacan isn't fit to rule in their place and get me made the legal guardian to subvert that problem I guess."

Nougat is seen rifling through some money, looking for amount Spades had bet. "Uh-huh, and the complicated problem is?"

Spades enters the room with a book in his arms, apparently having found whatever he was looking for. "I don't have legitimate claim to the throne at all anymore. Basically when I got banished to the summer home my mother also saw fit to remove my legitimacy as one of her heirs." Spades grabs a bill from the pile and gives it to Nougat. "So, I guess it's time to fall back on an old bad habit." He proceeds to slam the book onto the table.

"Is that…"

"Read up Nug." Spades smiles wickedly as we see the title of the book. _How to Stage a Coup. _"We have a lot of work ahead of us and I can't have one of my accomplices not knowing the basics." Spades pulls a coat on and turns to his door. "Stay here, I'm going to go get us some more help. I won't be long."

He was in fact long. Nougat had read the book cover to cover three times before Spades returned, with another Mewman in tow. A dark-skinned, female Mewman in a jesters outfit entered with the eager to get started Spades.

"Nougat, this is an old friend of mine, Jestduke. She _WAS _my sister's jester and, thanks to Shastacan being a humorless fart, is quite possibly the only person who hates him more than me."

"Shasty fired me after he found out I helped Eclipsa sneak out during her little affair." Jestduke looks about as angry as someone in jester's suit can. "If what we're going to do is going to screw him over, I'm happy to help."

"Once more, she's more than equipped to! I know from when I grew up in the palace that she knows ever false wall, hollow tree, hidden tunnel and secret passage my family ever added to that blasted place! No way there is anywhere in there she can't get us."

"Ok-then what would be the actual plan" Nougat closes the book.

"I'll tell you on the way to the next guy."


	5. Chapter 5

"You still haven't told me where we're going." Nougat shoved a branch out of his way as the group walked down a muddy, dark path in the middle of nowhere. "For all I know you're just going mad at this point. How are we going to get into the castle? Furthermore, how are we going to get Eclipsa and Globgor out of the crystals?"

"Nougat, I am insulted." Spades stopped in his path, mud caked on the legs of his pants. "When have you ever known me to play without a full deck?" He gestures to the area around him. "We are here in this swamp, my friend, to meet a man who will provide us with a way to follow the number one rule of the Gambler's code. When the cards are against you and there's no way you can win…"

"You cheat, I know, I know." Nougat is clearly getting annoyed. "But how are we going to cheat Shastacan? Even if we get to Eclipsa, we have NO way to free her."

"UGH!" Jestduke stops walking from in front of the two. "Will you two stop arguing? You sound like an old married couple!" Jestduke pushes apart some bushes revealing the entrance to a cave. "Besides we're here. The guy we hired will be inside…this place."

The group entered the cave, passing pools of brackish water and strange glowing stalagmites before eventually coming to a large cavern. A table has been set up in the middle of the room, with a map of the palace on it and four chairs surrounding it. In one of the far corners there are a few pieces of twisted metal and a crib.

"You're late." Said a shadowed figure sitting at the table. "I was starting to think you wouldn't show." Leaning forward the figure revealed themselves to be a frog monster. He reaches into a bowl in the middle of the table and pulls out a handful of berries.

"You didn't seriously think I would just hire you and leave you here with no explanation?" Spades pulls a seat out and sits down, Nougat and Jestduke follow suite and Spades pulls a deck of cards out of his coat. "Before we start, did you get the package?"

"What package? What are you talking about? Did you drag me all the way out through this godforsaken swamp for a poker game with…" Nougat blinks for a second… "I'm sorry, who are you?" Nougat turns to the Frog.

"Tuff."

"Also, no. No I didn't just drag you here for a poker game." Spades turns to Tuff. "Is the package in there?" Spades points to the cradle and Tuff nods silently. Spades walks over and nearly trips over the metal. "What's with the scrap metal?"

"Shastacan set it up with some tin woman. It fought like heck but I managed to…well, that's what's left, and metal is valuable so…"

"St Olga. I should have known." Spades rocks the cradle slightly. "Jestduke, Nougat, come over here. I want you to meet my niece."


End file.
